In Steve Jobs’ MacWorld 2008 keynote, when he unveiled the new MacBook Air, he referred to another notebook a number of times. When he needed a model notebook for high-end portability Jobs chose Sony’s TZ above all others. He, of course, had a number of reasons for choosing the TZ, but he did so in part because it is slim, lightweight, and beautifully designed. It is also quite expensive, which distinguishes it as an “executive” notebook and made the Air seem that much more affordable despite its comparatively limited feature set.

The Sony VAIO TZ is not only Sony’s flagship ultraportable notebook, but it is also the notebook that most other companies are gunning for with their high-end sub-3lb models. This is due not only because of the big price tag and impressive design, but because Sony has long been perceived as a leader in the ultraportable segment. Whether or not this is still true is up for debate, but it is clear that other manufacturers have largely caught up. The actual TZ models vary based on their build (for example the VGN-TZ180N/RC), but the TZ100 models are the US release, as the computer was first released in Japan as the TZ90 and it took some time to get it to the US, during which a number of competing ultraportables were released.

The VGN-TZ150N/B is actually the entry-level TZ model in the US market. The price for other SKUs can get as high as $3699.99 with upgrades like dual storage (64GB SSD and 250GB disk), the higher end processors (U7600 and U7700), and 2GB of memory.

Just to run down the features list, it quickly becomes clear way the TZ is so attractive. It’s under 3lbs, has a long battery life, an LED-backlit display, SSD options, and it still manages to pack in an optical drive. Having that optical drive makes it prime competition for other high end ultraportables, like Toshiba’s R500 and Panasonic’s W7. Another reason the TZ is so desirable is its design. The notebook looks quite cool–not only does it have an exceptional display that is incredibly thin, but it uses spaced out “MacBook style” keys and it has green LEDs shining on the power cord and the power button (when it is on). The overall effect is that the TZ is very good looking and it is a status symbol and piece of industrial design as much as it is a notebook.

The notebook has some limitations that users should make note of before investing in the TZ. The TZ also uses a 1.8″ 4200RPM disk, so drive performance is going to be well behind that found on competing notebooks that opted for a 2.5″ disk. Going with the 64GB SSD or even the 32GB option will help out with this, but if you opt for the top model (with dual storage) you will lose the optical drive. The notebook also only has a single memory slot, so the maximum amount of RAM is 2GB.

Overall the TZ gets high marks for its design. It is very portable and quite light, yet it still feels relatively sturdy. The keyboard is not quite at the level of the ThinkPad X61s but it is surprisingly usable and is preferable to much of the competition, including the R500 and Toughbook W5, though the separated keyboard is definitely an acquired taste. The cursor control is also workable, and while the buttons are not amazing, navigation is quick and easy. The notebook feels great in your hands and while the battery could fit in the chassis a bit better, the barrel hinge is a useful design that not only adds to visual appeal of the notebook, but gives the LCD cover a solid feel despite its thinness. That noted, the LCD bezel was a bit creaky in a few areas and some backlight bleeding was noticeable in areas (though I was not the first person to test out this particular unit and it clearly has some miles on it).

While it may have seemed like a good idea to compare the MacBook Air to the TZ, the Sony has a full range of connections that the Air largely lacks. The TZ is equipped with two USB slots, headphone/mic, a card reader, Memory Stick reader, VGA out, ethernet, modem, and that optical drive. Additionally Sony also managed to stick multimedia controls (six buttons) and a radio on/off switch. As for features you can’t see from the outside, the TZ has built-in Sprint mobile broadband which is really useful and a necessary option on a notebook in this category.

One of the most interesting aspects of the TZ is the 11.1″ LCD display. The widescreen display runs at 1366×768 which is not huge, but it offers sufficient screen real estate, especially if you are used to the 1024×768 found on standard aspect ratio ultraportables. The LED backlighting gets quite bright and image is always clear and sharp. There is considerable backlight bleeding, especially along the bottom, but that may be an isolated incident. Even as the backlight level drops the screen is quite usable, but it looks best at the upper levels. Because LED backlighting is most efficient than other technologies you can keep it on the brighter side and not worry about killing your battery.

During day-to-day use, the Sony TZ stood up very well. It is a pleasure to get from place to place and while it is not rugged, it managed to survive for a few 12+ hours days of walking around a trade show and a flight across the country and back. On the software side the TZ often felt sluggish, even compared to some other products in the category. The Core 2 Duo processor is an ULV model at the lowest available frequency and with 1GB of RAM Vista tends to choke. Normal work is not always affected, but it can definitely be felt more often than you would like considering the price of the notebook. The big factor is probably not the processor, and while it could use another gigabyte of RAM, the 1.8″ hard drive is a bottleneck. The small drive holds 100GB but its operation is unavoidably slow due to its small size and the slow rotational speed.

During benchmarking the performance findings from general use were confirmed. The TZ may have a big price tag but you trade off weight for performance. As expected 3D synthetic testing was the low point, with scores of 2388 and 640 for 3DMark01 and 3DMark03 respective. These were considerably lower than that on other ultraportables, including the Panasonic W5, ThinkPad X61s, and the ThinkPad X60s. PCMark scores were a bit more competitive but still behind the levels were we would like to see them. PCMark02 scores were 3862, 7599, and 496 (CPU, memory, disk). PCMark04 and 05 scores were 2471 and 1916, respectively. The biggest single indicator here is that, as expected, the hard drive performance ratings are very low due to the use of a 1.8″ model. Finally SuperPi calculation times were also very high compared to other notebooks, including 65.286 seconds for 1M and 144.690 seconds for 2M.

The battery life of the TZ is one of its strongest features. During testing, with the backlight at about 75% or so, the notebook was able to last about six hours during a number of separate outings. This was for general use, mostly internet work, so for more intensive work I would say to expect between 4-6 hours, depending on your TZ specifications. Using the optical drive for drain testing yielded a battery life of a bit over three hours, which means you can get through a full movie on your next flight.

So, how does the TZ stack up to all the hype? Ultimately, the notebook did pretty well. As ultraportables go the TZ is in or near the lead when it comes to design, form factor, display quality, and battery life. The VGN-TZ150N/B is over the two thousands dollar mark and does not have any of the extras, like the SSD, but it is still an exceptional notebook. Unfortunately the performance of our test unit was not always up to par, at least given the price. Whether it was Vista or the use of just 1GB of RAM the notebook was usable, but was not nearly as snappy as it could be. The Core 2 Duo processor, even the ULV, is a great foundation for an ultraportable, but this one suffered from extended boot times and sluggish loads. The notebook runs cool and quiet and was generally a pleasure to use if you don’t mind waiting from time to time. As far as battery life and portability go, the TZ is a great pick, there is a performance trade-off though.

This would be the right notebook for someone who wants something flashy and impressive that can easily get from place to place, but who does not require a whole lot of power. The optical drive is a great feature and helps set the TZ apart from almost all the competition, except for Toshiba’s R500, which is probably the closest competition to this system. If you are going to spend the money to buy a TZ, definitely opt for the memory upgrade though.

Reader Comments

pocketables

The TZ actually has both ethernet and modem jacks. They’re hiding under the plastic door on the left side of the notebook. The corresponding icons printed on the door can be seen in the second picture above.

SalCan

Sorry I explained that wrong, can’t believe it got through my edits. It doesn’t have +exposed+ modem and ethernet jacks. Didn’t mean to confuse anyone. The Air is the one without the ethernet jack ; ) I cleaned up some parts so it’s easier to understand.

SEan

I have this laptop and I want to say this is a very accurate review on all counts. This notebook is beautiful, light and has a long battery life but it is maddeningly sluggish if you use it for anything more than internet surfing.
One additional point: I could not even imagine that you could put so much bloatware on one laptop. When I finally called Sony to help me through deleting it all, I found out that it was not only loading TurboTax every time I started up, it was loading Spiderman III, which was loaded onto the laptop in its entirelty and then locked so I would have to buy it from Sony if I wanted (which I didn’t) to watch it. Madness!

aaaaaaaa

ya that is a very accurate description;; if you want to use it, you better turn off all the unnecessary processes using ctrl alt delete, you can drive down the ram usage down to about 50%, which will pretty much get rid of sluggishness

Brian K. White

I have had this same model for at least 6 months and love it.
The
size and slowness of vista amazed me, as did the discovery of the huge
spiderman-3 file! That I can’t even watch, even if I wanted to, which I
don’t. gross!
But now that I have wiped out Vista and installed
XP it performs quite well. It’s still not exactly a 3d modelling
workstation of course, but no longer excruciating for most tasks and
apps. I now have the 100G drive repartitioned into 4 partitions with 4
OS’s, XP, Linux (xubuntu), FreeBSD 7, and SCO Open Server 5.0.7, and it
performs reasonably well in all of those OS’s. I think Vista is the
main speed problem here.
Battery life in XP is about the same as Vista, Linux a bit less,
freebsd and sco both a bit less that that, but still well over 3 hours
even in the worst case, using the standard battery.
I managed to
get the smaller battery via ebay and I highly recomment that too.
Battery life is almost 3 hours in XP with that for normal internet use.
Considering the portability it’s a good option lots of times.
Also
it was a big deal to me that it’s not merely ethernet, it’s gigabit.
Most others didn’t actually have that. The Dell m1330 actually has a
gigabit chip with only a 100 mbit tranceiver, so in windows it appears
to be gigabit because it’s a gigabit chip and driver, but it isn’t
actially gigabit.You can’t actually transfer large files at full
gigabit speed on the TZ either due to bottlenecks elsewhere, but you
can go almost 3 times as fast as 100mbit, which is huge.
You can buy a 2G ram stick of the same or higher speed from
anywhere for a fraction of what Sony charges. I got one with copper
heat spreaders from Gskill for under $100 way back when I first got the
TZ. No reliability problems. Still runs memtest86 all day with no errors.
Another hint, get the portable form factor power pack VGP-AC16V10 and an incase 13″ Nylon Sleeve (or other) laptop bag meant for a 13″ macbook.
Lay
an extra battery on the bottom, lay the folded up power cord along the
bottom over that, dorp the TZ in battery-first over that, and drop the
power pack vertically to the left or right of the TZ. The bag, meant
for a 13″ macbook is larger than the TZ, but that particular model of
power pack and the extra batt & power cord exactly fills up the
excess space. The whole kit is STILL totally slim and light, even
though you have your AC power and a whole extra battery always with
you. The incase bag is well enough padded with firm foam inside that my
TZ has survived a fair amount of tossing around by me. If you don’t have an extra battery it works just as fine without it. It’s a more convenient arrangement than even the official TZ bags.
The only down side is the portable power pack has a very short
cord from the power pack to the TZ. This is so that the cord can
actually stow right into a cavity in the power pack, which is good, but
it also means that to use the AC power you must be able to lay the
power pack on the table next to or behind, or under (like elevated rear
feet) the TZ. fine if you’re at a cafe etc, but kind of annoying on
your lap with no lap-desk. 5 hour battery life makes this not often a
problem. :)
A further enhancement for the power pack is to
ditch the power cord that comes with the power pack and replace it with
a lighter, thinner, more flexible, longer one from some other device.
It’s a standard two-hole appliance cord, and a TZ draws so little power
(less than 1.5A in the worst possible case) that the lightest 18 guage
lamp or radio or shaver etc… cord you can find is fine. The upshot is
you can have a less annoying cord that is more flexible, and thinner
also means you can have a few more feet of length while still having a
small & light kit overall. The difference between 6 and 9 feet can
be huge when you are trying to find a plug in some cafe or airport.

I have to say I just love love love this notebook and don’t
regret the expense one bit. (I rejected the almost $500 warranty, that
would make the total cost kind of hard to swallow) I use it all day
every day and no problems so far. I do in fact use the optical drive
routinely and so it’s actually a big deal, despite what macbook air,
eeepc and other netbook fans would like to believe. I also routinely
use the gigabit, and the fact that the wifi is N is a big deal at least
at home & work where I have N access points. About the only thing I
miss is I wish it had a stereo line-in for recording audio. But some
usb sound cards are small enough to tolerate. For instance, one I use
is just a cord. No box or dongle. Just a cord with a 1/4 inch
guitar/instrument plug on one end and usb on the other, and the ADC
part of a sound card is embedded inside the usb plug.
If you
want to wipe Vista and install XP or linux, google around for tips
first so that you can get the best hardware and power management
support and retain the InstantOn feature, etc. It’s not an effortless
switch, but everything is out there so that with a little googling and
effort you can have XP without giving up any features.

http://www.happy.co.uk Henry Stewart

I have had the TZ for a year and it drives me crazy. True, it looks gorgeous. And i too solved the sluggishness by going back to Windows XP.
But the real problem is a bug which causes the cursor to randomly jump around the scree causing your text to get jumbled. At first I thought it was just me but I have found half a dozen friends with TZ laptops ahve the same problem.
The worst bit is that Sony are in denial about this problem and so offer no solution. It is soooo frustrating. This alone makes me say: Avoid this model. Its n ot worth the hassle.

TZ37GN/B Suraj

(Henry Stewart) – The problem you are talking about is related to touchPAD grounding and static…google about SZ and you will get a post which tells you how to solve it…. do it only if you kit is out of warranty as it involves opening….I was running CPU-Z and it showed me 2 memory slots …one with 2GB and another Empty…is it possible to put one more 2GB in that slot? OS X also shows 2 Slots when I tried to install it on TZ….